A NASA satellite intended to bring some hard facts to the climate-change debate has crashed into the sea after lifting off from California and failing to separate from its booster rocket.
The "Glory" satellite carried two sensors, one intended for investigation of aerosols – particulates such as soot – in the atmosphere and …

Does no one actually read the articles?

Typical Microsoft...

I bet it is their fault, they probably did an update and it bricked it. I know it is only 10% of one particular model that is affected but it is bound to have affected it... If it had been open source then it wouldn't have crashed...

Oh, sorry, the article is about a satellite? I just saw the word "crash" and went straight for the comments so I could post an ill informed rant about something I know naff all about, isn't that what the register comments section is about nowadays?

Good viewpoint

I agree entirely with you (although those who think that Man has changed so much about the planet to cause the problem also think that man can stop it!)

However, I would say that you are much more likely to have problems with the total collapse of the financial system first. Firstly, there is the issue of USA giving so many dollars to China to pay for things, that the dollar will almost end up worthless, and the only thing that USA can give to China to repay is all their land :) Then there is the issue that credit and interest means that there actually isn't enough money in the world to repay all the dept!

I think that little lot will cause you problems long before climate change does.

Twonk

Drama queen.

You do realise that the chances of whole human even being mildly inconvenienced by climate change is slim right? The earth has been much hotter than this many times before and our ancestors and related species survived quite happily.

People like you who persist in painting climate changes as an Eco-pocalypse do nothing for the debate.

Try reading the Reg interview with one of the greenpeace founders from a couple of weeks ago and come back when you have something constructive to add.

successful orbital insertion

Someone's not going to have a good weekend.....

Recoverable?

What I want to know is if the sattelite is recoverable and if they'll try to launch it again after checking it out. Some of the reports said that contingency plans were put into effect, so perhaps they had some sort of safe recovery proceedure in place. I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but I'd like to know anyway.

Recoverable...

To "recover" the satellite they would need a REALLY big dust pan and brush...

To put it another way, over the weekend I dropped my iPhone onto the floor of a car park and it smashed.

Now, imagine a satellite, built in a clean room to prevent the slightest trace of contamination, full of delicate instruments and made of the lightest materials posible to save launch weight. Imagine that hitting the ocean at speeds somewhat faster than my iPhone hit the floor...

No, it ain't recoverable, if is scattered all over the southern pacific ocean floor where the fish are shouting "they are shooting rockets at us again!"

P.S. Not mocking, just wanting to get in my sorrow for my trashed iPhone, still my Omnia WP7 phone is working fine, even after the update!

It depends...

Short Answer: No

Long Answer: 1) Splashed down in water thousands of feet deep; 2) Hit the water at (probably) several hundred mph and is now in little, tiny pieces; 3) Not designed to float, though some bits/pieces might, so...no.

meta-conspiracy

I call conspiracy between the conspirators. Direct observations are in nobody's interest in the overheated climate debate. Superglue on the rocket top and everyone keeps their funding ! (except the rocket maker, who I do feel sorry for).

Send it through India

A lot of them are doing it now. They would do it better and cheaper.

Who can forget the fiasco about the Mars lander, when ultimately, it was found to be a simple calculation error between two systems of measurement - Miles and Kilometers and the whole system went Kaput ?

Not looking good for Orbital Science Corp and the Cre Dev contract

2 attempted launches, 2 fails.

Note this is the *old* Taurus launcher they know *how* to build and operate (but haven't very often).

Not the new hotness with the Russian built (and probably designed) liquid fueled first stage with the engines they picked up off ATK when RPKistler went down the pan along with the cash left from the NASA contract with RPKistler.

OTOH

OSC have been smoozing NASA for about another $300m for a "Risk reduction" flight.